1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a spacer holder of a thermal electron emitting backlight unit, and more particularly, to a spacer holder that maintains tension of thermal electron emitting wires and has a common electrode electrically connected to the thermal electron emitting wires in a thermal electron emitting backlight unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display (LCD) device includes a backlight unit that supplies white light onto a rear surface thereof. Conventionally, a cold cathode fluorescent lamp is used as the backlight unit. However, a flat panel type backlight unit is required for manufacturing a slim backlight unit.
A conventional backlight unit that uses a stripe-shaped electrode causes an arc discharge since the electron emission is concentrated at an edge of the stripe-shaped electrode. Thus, the conventional backlight unit has non-uniform brightness.
In a backlight unit that uses a flat panel electrode, electron emission may not uniform, thereby causing a non-uniform brightness problem in an LCD.
A method of increasing brightness of a backlight unit using a thermal electron emitting cathode has been discussed in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2005/0179363 A1. However, when the thermal electron emitting cathode is mounted in a wire shape, the cathode can be thermally deformed causing a short circuit with an electrode placed above or below it. Also, a problem of the thermal electron emitting cathode disconnection can arise near a wall frame since each of the thermal electron emitting cathodes is extended outside of the wall frame to be connected to an external power source.